


Coming back

by Oh_well_its_me



Series: Reality: gone wrong (that's how it usually is) [1]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, M/M, Multi, Ouma has really bad past, Ouma not Oma, Past Brainwashing, Post-Canon, Shumai is a good boi don't worry, it gets better and only better okay no harm to the babies just tragic backstories, oumasai on main, they all woke up kind of AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2019-07-07 00:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15897105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oh_well_its_me/pseuds/Oh_well_its_me
Summary: Saihara Shuichi came back into Ouma's life at the darkest time and saved him, the word count equals levels of stress Ouma caused him in return.





	1. Satisfied

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saihara Shuichi is satisfied with his life.  
> He really should be.

He did something more than survive. He ended the game. There was no more Danganronpa.  
  
He returned to the real world and found out his friends weren't dead, but waiting for him with smiles. Well, some of them. The ones that were closest to him were there, so he didn't ask about others until much later.  
  
He remembered how chaotic that day was. Staff couldn't care less what was going on with them after disconnecting them from Virtual Reality. Studio was closing, they weren't working here anymore. Helping kids who caused them to lose their jobs wasn't even taken in consideration. So when he woke up there was Kaito who run off to talk with Maki after only saying _"Hi, bro!"_ like it was absolutly normal, Kaede rambling about not being a ghost in a manner that really wasn't calming, even though it definitely was suppoused to and a women who introduced herself as his mother and confirmed that his friends weren't ghosts. There were also Yumeno parents who immediately took her away, not letting Tenko speak with her and Angie who stopped other girl from attacking them.

The archivist (or were that just a random employee that was there? she seemed lost) gave him his documents back looking at him like he killed her dog or something. He was also given a set of clothes that looked like the uniform he was wearing in VR with a ominous "You're going to need this." The documents raised many questions in his head and the only person who he could possibly get answers from was his mother. So, after passing by Kaito and Maki who were holding hands on the way for her documents, exiting the studio and spending around twenty minutes fidgeting in the car until they dropped Akamatsu off by her house he finally asked.

\- Why did Team Danganronpa covered the identity change for both of us? Is it something they usually do? Changing family names to match the ones from implanted memories?

\- No, it's something they do only if requested. Not everyone changes name at all, some have it changed only for the game and very few permamently. Our case is special and I am not sure if you want to know the details, since the reason why you participated in Danganronpa is a big part of it. I mean, you didn't wanted to remember that. I know that you're confused, but I don't want you to be hurt. It's not like I want to keep informations from you, but you better think it over - Do you really want to know? There's time and other things we should talk about and not to lie to you - I need time to prepare myself for this too, if we're going to talk about that.

\- Oh, okay. So the other thing I wanted to ask about is my age...

\- Um, yeah, the age, first season was consider scandalous, but not for any reasons that caused it to end now. The participants were mostly nineteen, audience decided that for this kind of show they should be at least twenty one year old. The viewer is most valuable in this business, so it was a rule since season two to this day. Except, sadly, Team Danganronpa was dead set on the idea of high schoolers in their killing games. More recent seasons don't even mention the suppoused age of participants, dates of birth don't include year. There's a lot of subjects that Team Danganronpa avoided for a long time, eventually it was meant to fall, but god knows how many years it would take to happen without that push... Anyway, how many years younger you're in your memory?

\- Five...

\- Seventeen again, huh? Not that bad. The peak of the emo phase was at sixteen, I still have the photos of your first attempts of using eyeliner hidden somewhere. Uhm, hidden, because you wanted to burn them...

There was a first long uncomfortable silence they had. It came back a lot in the following weeks. The ride was at least two hours long. They left metropolis with The Team Danganronpa studio far behind and stopped in some village in front of a giant mansion, it was diffrent than other buildings in the locality... much richer. And it wasn't like the houses in the neighborhood were some wooden cottages, no, they all were luxurious, modern houses on that street.  
  
\- And we're home.

\- H-how many people lives here exactly?

\- Oh well. I know it's a big house, but that expression is too much, it's not a palace. Answering your question, just the two of us, but there's six bedrooms and there was a point when five of them were in use, but not anymore. Let's walk inside and I'll explain.

As he listened; over the tea, because caffeine doesn't go well with anxiety (she said that like it was the saddest thing in the world and he almost agreed with it); he noticed that his mom enjoys telling stories. Starting with warning him about effects that coffee didn't had in a VR, but in the reality did, she went through showing him where he can find what, who once occupied which room, what's going on with his dad, the location of the closest grocery store, which of the neighbours is the weirdest and ended with a sudden "Well, that's enough for today, just look at the time." It surprised him to see it was almost midnight.

Even though most of the memories from that time were already blurry he could clearly recall how despite being tired his mind decided to went into overdrive insted of falling asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. He wasn't asleep when the sun rised. There was too much information he had to process. Apparently, his father was almost the same as he remembered - a popular, not worldwide famous though, actor who didn't had time for his son more often than on a few occasions during the year. On the other hand his mother was nothing like the counterpart he remembered. She wasn't a screenwriter at all and she didn't ever abandon him, his uncle was a fictional character and the one who raised him was her, not the uncle. His parents divorced when he was four, before that they shared this house with his grandparents from the father's side, but they all moved to a diffrent country, specifically to the USA, after it and left the house for the two of them. In the living room was a painting, family portrait hanging above the fireplace, so he could compare himself with his parents. The only similarity to his mother he had was the color of their eyes, but it wasn't identical. Hers held some kind of fire, shade closer to amber than gold, while his were a bit dull, fading in gray, which was the color of his dad's eyes. They sure had similar faces, besides eyes and hairstyle the only diffrence he could find was that his own face was a little more round. From what his mom said he could tell that his father was rather carefree and immature, but he looked so intimidating that this was unbelievable. The man was also taller by head than his mom, while he was maybe by a centimeter or two. For a moment his already tired mind assumed that he could still grow up to be just as tall, but then he realized - he wasn't seventeen, but twenty two years old and very unlikely to grow any more.

Unable to fall asleep he started pacing around the room. The one he was staying in was a guest room, not his old room. He was afraid of what he could find in the room his old self lived in. His mom said that she left the place untouched, so when he decides to go there he'll find what he had left. He wanted to know who he was, one day, maybe, but back then he definitely wasn't ready to deal with anything more than what he already had to. It's not like he still had any excuse three years later, now he was just being a coward.

The first night back in the outside world and a thought sneaked in to poison his brain anew. All he did was go to the en-suite where he saw his face in the mirror and it went like this "I shouldn't complain about the baby face, Ouma has it worse, he doesn't look like 'at least twenty one', hell, he didn't even look old enough for the suppoused seventeen from the game." That was the moment he became aware that everyone being alive meant Kokichi Ouma being alive and it wasn't the same as his friends being alive. Because the last time Shuichi talked to Kokichi he said probably the most spiteful words he ever did. Because Kokichi labeled him as 'trustworthy?'. Because Kokichi was right about the whole thing being a show. Because in the end he came to the same conclusion as Kokichi and decided to put their lifes on the line to end the game. He made a mistake while judging Ouma, that boy wasn't evil, he was making sacrifices for a greater good and he was hurt by it too. It was then that Shuichi promised to himself that he would apologise to Ouma as soon as he could. After that he tried to think about something more pleasant, he walked out on the balcony to watch the sunrise as he thought about having an amazing friend like Kaede back in his life and how good it was that he wasn't alone and lost in this world. Having his mom around was very helpful. Not only had he a place to go, but a person who connected him to this world and knew so much about him, when he knew so little.

Personal data in the documents Team Danganronpa gave him provided no information of who he was as a person. It informed about his identity, except for the name from before the change as it was the kind of information that was protected even from him for some reason, health and qualifications. Inserted knowledge guaranteed him certificate that put him in a position not even equal, but better that graduating college. He could start his own detective agency and soon enough he did. There was also a file explaining the rights Team Danganronpa had over his name and image signed by him before the game... already with new name. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to know, but he felt curious and documents weren't answering his questions, his mom did. For example, there was an information that he was hospitalized with few broken bones at the age of sixteen, but he had to ask her next day to learn that it was a result of him trying to leave his room through balcony and falling down.   
  
He lived with his mom for a little while. After he got his own apartament, he kept visiting her, she was much better than the fictional mother from his memories, even though she looked alike, so it was nice to stay in touch... less lonely. It was kind of awkward, after all she was a stranger to him, but he was diffrent too and they had time to get to know each other. They spent lots of time looking trough old photos, because of all the stories she added. The memory of going shopping together after finding out that more than half of his old wardrobe wasn't to his liking anymore was still making him smile and he didn't know if it was caused by the way she gushed over every look he tried on or the encouter with the weirdest neighbour at the end of the day, the man had called his mom a witch and himself looked like he escaped magic world. He met this guy a few times by now and everytime was crazier... From what his mom said about him - the man was really living in his own world and after last time he couldn't agree more with that statment. He also noticed that not matter how negative words his mom wanted to choose while describing Ayumu she seemed fond of him. Shuichi never called her out on it, but he could tell she had feelings for the "weirdo". Other than that, they also watched movies his father starred in and laughed at any signs of bad acting or absurd and if they couldn't find any - she mocked the actor. Generally they had a great time together and he wouldn't mind staying if it wasn't for what Akamatsu told him during the third week when they finally got to meet again.

  
Having to travel for two and half an hour to visit was a problem, but the reason he moved to the city wasn't just a wish to spend more time with friends. Talking on the phone and occasionally seeing each other was enough of contact for him. Both of his closest friends were now in relationships and working, so it wasn't like they had all the time in the world too. No, the reason he did was that he wanted to be useful, listening to Kaede talking about her organisation made him feel like he was wasting time sitting in the countryside. He started helping from that day on, looking for people from older seasons of Danganronpa was what got his detective agency running. Before all the craze with agancy started he tried working from home, but there was no use. He needed to be close to where the Team Danganronpa studio building stood. It made sense to think that most of the participants stayed here after the game, not knowing where they were from and often not able to afford traveling. Not everyone had a place to go after exiting the Neo World Program, he was lucky it wasn't the case for him. He was surrounded by people who cared about him and everyone would say he was successful, having only one unsolved case in all of his work. He had everything, money, respect, true friends, good bakery close to his place, so literally everything he could have ever wanted, what should be more than enough for him to be happy. At the very least he should be satisfied with what he had, but that one case he had to abandon haunted him in nightmares. Maybe if it wasn't so personal he would accept the failure more easily, but not being able to find Ouma after searching for months left him disappointed in himself. Guilt was always present in his life, closing the case with Ouma presumed dead by the end of the first winter, because of no prove of him being alive, topped with everyone telling him that there's no chance he survived so long on the streets and it's time to let go... he gave in, but couldn't get over it.

Since the money wasn't a problem by the end of the second month he could move in his new apartament. Now, a little over three years after killing game has ended he was going there, calling this place home. Enjoying the nice weather he choose to walk, leaving his car in the garage that day. Getting lost in the retrospection must have been a bad idea as he ended up being actually lost and he didn't realise that until sudden noise scared him, resulting in him looking around and not recognising the area. What he recognised though, were the purple eyes staring at him. Ouma Kokichi, preassumed dead for over two years, not seen even once by anyone he knew after the game was over, just fell on the ground right before him and looked at him from there like he didn't have the slightest idea how to act now. Saihara didn't know what to do, too.

Old problem solved itself, new struggle began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Saihara's story, part of it. I have so much more planned, but not enough time to write faster. I think I'm going to make a separate fic filling in on the darker side of the story, not necessary for the plot here, but for the fuller pictrue of everything. (NSFW and other bad stuff I don't want here) It's going to be a series anyway, diffrent characters have their stories too.


	2. Foolish

Shuichi Saihara thought he knew what he was doing. He thought so. And then he didn't. After everything he have already dealt with he just... kind of assumed he was ready for anything that life would bring. He was wrong yet again.

First, the life that he knew was fictional now, seemingly harsh with neglecting parents, busy uncle and traumatic cases became nothing in the face of killing game, it's tragedies and survivor guilt. Then again it was fictional and he had to adjust to the real world like the machine didn't stuff his head with things that didn't allow him to feel at peace, which it did. He was thrown into life where he didn't know anything about himself and had to trust in what he was told. He got over the awkward crushes game inserted in his brain to make more money on ships. He started his own detective agency and made it successful. He corrected his brain from uncle to mom as long as he had to to make it automatic. He forced himself to use diffrent products then he was used to at first, especially cosmetics, as he didn't want to have anything to do with products that Danganronpa advertised (and thank god, some of them were removed from the market). The hell of fighting the way they were programmed was the closest thing to trying to quit addiction like smoking for example, and yet, a lot of them tried. To change style, taste, force themselfs to climb the shelf titled "above what TDR have made us". He succeded, slowly he was even beginning to like colors or so he was telling himself, most of them weren't able to stick with their attempts and always came back to the same looks, same smell, same characteristic elements of their uniforms.

Rantaro really was going about his rings like a lot of people were with cigarettes. He'd notice him without them everyonce in a while, saying that this time it's final and then break, after few days, weeks, record was six months. Once Akamatsu came to a meeting in a ponytail, with no hairpins. It looked like she was hungover or simply in pain. It didn't took long untill she excused herself from the room to the bathroom and came back with her usual hairstyle, ldefeated, but brought back to life. He, himself had experienced days when he had to put on his uniform to function without panic attacks and didn't even try colors more lively than light blue. But seeing that scarf was entirely other thing. Maybe because it was discarded on the ground as a sign abandoning this life for good. And a hand unconciously reaching to get it back, while Ouma was still obviously confused. Looking at him with those big eyes, he wasn't suppoused to see them again, not this alive, teary, real.

Three years. That's a really long time for a young person and he considered himself to be still young. He hadn't seen Kokichi Ouma in three years. He had a lot of strong emotions to settle down in the meantime. First he had to get over his "crush" on Akamatsu, which was pretty easy compared to later acknowledging and also having to get over crush he had on Momota. The diffrence between those two was that what he assumed to be a crush was a feeling of strong friendship and what he thought was friendship was a crush. Not really a healthy one, too. Of course, Kaito always had good intentions and remained his friend all this time, but being around him wasn't really the best for him in the long run. In an overhelming situation like a killing game it was good to have him take the responsibility, to give him a little push forward so he doesn't stay tangled in his own head, but Shuichi grew and environment changed, now he wanted to set his own pace. And he had time for that, no need to force himself out of his comfort-zone like Kaito would. Plus, Kaito had Maki anyway... and also left to have an actual astronaut training and then, after the wedding of Kaede and Rantaro (he couldn't miss it) finally to space for two years. He wouldn't be back until Autumn. He felt a bit bad admiting it, but he was breathing more freely after Kaito went away in both literal and metaphorical sense. The "patting"-hitting his back wasn't something he would miss. Ever. But more importantly, he was free, independent, if he felt like it he could ask his friends for help, but that was his choice to make. He only realized how suffocating Kaito's presence was to him after he left... and getting drunk few times... and few hook ups. That wasn't the best time of his life. But! he got over that phase in mere weeks. Compared to the time he spent searching for Ouma, his love struggles were so insignificant. Months of losing his mind over it, hours upon hours of looking everywhere he could, hopeful weeks when he thought he was on the right track and then coming back with empty hands, back down to more depressed and desperate state each time. Everybody was telling him to stop and he stayed in denial and even after he closed the case and made people believe that he acknowledged that Ouma must have died already, he was still privately searching. Even that day, when he got "lost on the way home" he found himself an excuse to wander and he did, even unconciously he was looking for any sign of him. And he found.

Oh god, he has found him. Finding a person who just attempted to... would be enough to shook him, but as he processed who it was he became absolutly overhelmed. For a second he was relieved. Then his heart dropped. If the rope was stronger he could have been too late or maybe not even that since the noise was what attracted his attention, he could have passed by him dying and not know until someone would report finding dead body and he'd hear about it and would check like usual if it wasn't Ouma and this time it would be and... But he had to fucus on the reality, on Ouma who was broken in more ways than one, but alive. So he took him home. It was unsettling, because this Ouma was quiet, no arguing, no over the top emotional reactions, no accusing him of having bad intentions, just following him like he didn't care what was going to happen next. And that was scary, that was making him want to cry. And so he did, he cried a bit when Ouma was bathing so he knew he wouldn't see and then a whole lot more while on a phone with Kaede telling her what happened. And many other times during following weeks when it was slowly revealed how bad state Ouma was in concering both physical and mental health.

He was suppoused to be better at this now. He believed he could do something as simple as held a conversation. He wasn't an awkward teenager anymore, he could look people in the eyes. Goddamnit, he was a boss of a detective agency, he worked with people everyday and yet with Ouma he had to learn this ability once again. And yet, as if not minding all the discomfort it caused he kept coming back and talking to him. Then again, he didn't know what to talk about with Ouma who most of the time was too tired to lie or joke around and he was feeling more and more awkward, but remained unwilling to give up spending time with him. So he came up with the idea of movie nights.

Being a regular visitor he got mistaken for someone working here several times, but it just showed how privileged he was, because of his friendship with Kaede - visitors weren't an usual sight, most of the people staying there didn't have anybody who would come to see them, so a person let inside was assumed to be working here. His pass was special, a special guest to a special patient, since yes, even though more tame Ouma was still Ouma and everybody who got in contact with him would agree. 

There was also Hinata, who Saihara would sometimes see while visiting, a roommate of Kokichi who was definitely bringing the old Ouma back. At first he assumed that old men like Nagito wouldn't be much of any influence and the choice confused him, but Kaede, who he confronted about it just smiled at him and told him to wait. He didn't know what he was suppoused to wait for, for him to die of old age so Ouma gets another roommate? And he could have never known, if not for what he have seen one day. Nagito Hinata, as much it was hard to believe while just looking at him, was an asshole and not just grumpy-grandpa-kind-of-asshole, no, he was that kind of asshole that sometimes in-game Ouma could be, maybe even on higher level and using his bad health as a leverage to get away with everything. It wasn't long until the two became friends and joined forces in causing chaos. One maybe would rather keep this calm and quiet Kokichi, but Shuichi was relieved to see him acting like himself again. After that he also decided to put more trust in Kaede's opinion, he really shouldn't doubt her in the first place. 

After all, he would be helpless and lost without her. She calmed him down when he called her, gave him instructions of what he should do, after they've talked Ouma into agreeing to stay in the shelter she gave him permission to visit whenever he wanted, kept him informed on things Ouma himself wouldn't tell him, but were important to know, so a lot of medical informations and supported him through all this time. Such a good friend was a blessing. Though, it all would be easier if he didn't have to bother her this much, unfortunatelly what was written into their brains by the machine couldn't be erased (other way than going through it again which wasn't an option), so he would not stop to worry about Ouma until he was all okay, which was unlikely to happen in this lifetime. 


End file.
